Blues about the Blues
Salute!
Just read some stuff about the fatal crash in early June.
Very down news. Last Blue fatality was a dude at Beaufurt that tried to pull too hard and apparently had GLOC. Was a turn too hard.
The Mt Home 'bird crash way back was a very clear of starting a maneuver a few hundred feet below the planned parameter due to field alt versus a base altitude.. The dude even called that he did not think he would make the maneuver when he was about the 270 deg part of the reverse Cuban Eight.
The USN is making lot of excuses on this crash. My students that went on to fly the Viper demo routines talked about the "go-no-go" criteria for some maneuvers. The Viper had an AoA limiter controlled by a switch. So the demo pilot would pull full back for the initial part of the "reverse Cuban eight" that was the demo when the jet first lifted off and headed up at a 30 deg or so angle. If he saw 18 deg AoA , then he was in the Cat III flight control limit and not the full Cat I mode.
I fully appreciate the efforts by the pilots to make a great performance. But sometimes ya gotta take some flak in the debrief and not have your wife attend the memorial service. The 'bird guy at Mt Home did the right thing and barely made it. I do not laud his failure to add field elevation and such to the maneuver, but he realized he was gonna prolly die and pulled the handle.
Gums sends...